A good friend once told me: “Sometimes it’s nice to get a little dirty.” On this rock we call Earth, there are two places that I love: the country and the city. I grew up in the countryside of Canada, and even though it was wonderful, I wanted to move [...]

“Be Careful,” he shouted at me in clearly articulated Spanish as I began to walk towards the glowing green foliage of Cerro Cora National Park. “We’ve seen the jaguar out there three or four times already this month. It rained last night, so any prints you see will have been [...]

The rain sounded different to Cusco rain. Fatter, wetter somehow, the decadent splatter of water on leaf. The drugs had me pinned between an exhausted indifference to whatever may have been crawling through the holes in walls and window screens, and a lurid imagining of too-many-legged tarantulas seeking escape from [...]

You can count on seeing an oversized men’s shoe, a life-sized photo of Walt Whitman, and windows shaped like those on a boat when you visit famed poet Pablo Neruda’s three houses, all within the Chilean capital of Santiago or a short trip from there, as detailed recently by the [...]

With over a million members in 230 different countries, CouchSurfing has become an indispensable tool for travelers since its founding in 2004, allowing travelers from all over the world to host, stay with, or simply meet other travelers. As of April, 2011, CouchSurfing reports that it has been involved with [...]

For travelers who’ve been to Southeast Asia, they know that Laos itself is no longer the hidden gem of the region it once was, with more and more travelers having been turned on to the slow rhythms and friendly people that populate this small, landlocked country. Many backpackers end up [...]

In a city where the average hotel rate is a robust $310 (up 13% from September 2009 to September 2010), it’s a no-brainer that budget travelers (or any traveler, really) should explore the possibility of staying in one of New York’s hostels to save money. (And, yes, there are hostel [...]

Exploring India is hardcore, and the most jaded of travelers will tell you so. The cacophonous sounds, pungent smells, melange of colors, and unnerving division between rich and poor screams chaos and curiosity. It’s that fusion of wonder and too much of everything that that makes a trip to this [...]

Okay, I’m just putting this out there: Maybe Thailand (and Bangkok) is such a backpacker mecca because of the food? I mean, where else in the world do you find dishes so catered to both the eat-cheap and eat-on-the-go crowd? From banana roti (a perfect late-night snack to enjoy with [...]

Much of what we read about travel is packaged into a descriptive personal essay that seeks to sweep the reader to a magical land where cotton candy falls from the sky and unicorns roam undulating; verdant hills leading to an ethereal Eden. And let’s face it, most of us enjoy [...]